21 Listening Maps for Music Classes that Students Will Love
Listening maps for music are perfect for elementary students to learn about melodic contour, texture, form, style, and other elements of music.
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Do you need ways to integrate more Classical music into your elementary music classroom? Listening maps are the perfect way to engage elementary music students and help them learn about melodic contour, texture, form, style, and other elements of music.
Listening maps can also help students learn about the instruments of the orchestra and band.
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Versatile Listening Maps May Be Used for Multiple Grade Levels
Listening maps are easy for teachers to assign and students to use in the classroom, for homeschool, or even for sub lessons. For accountability, students can write a short reflection, answer a few simple questions about the piece, or even create their own listening maps.
Some of these listening maps aren’t in English, but that’s not a problem. The music and graphic representations transcend the small amount of language.
Share this post to help other elementary music teachers find these quality listening maps. Enjoy!
Types of Listening Maps
We’ve classified these listening maps into 5 basic categories. Each category focuses on a different aspect of music.
- Instrumental Focus
- Graphic Listening Maps – Melody
- Graphic Listening Maps – Texture
- Form
- Style
Students are already exposed to plenty of animation for entertainment, and they often overlook the music in those videos. Because of this, I avoid using animated, entertainment-only listening maps in the music classroom.
Below are several different listening maps for your elementary music classroom.
Listening Maps with an Instrumental Focus
The following listening maps highlight the instruments in each piece. This helps students learn the tone color and timbre of the instruments of the orchestra and band.
Fanfare of the Common Man, Aaron Copland
Theme from Star Wars, John Williams
Guide to the Orchestra, Britten
Graphic Listening Maps – Melody
These graphic listening maps are some of our favorites. They fall into two basic subcategories – melody and texture. The melody listening maps follow the musical contour of the melody while the texture maps are a visual representation of all of the notes in the piece. Both types help students make sense of what they’re hearing.
Morning (Peer Gynt), Grieg
Cello Suite #1, Bach
Ode to Joy, from Symphony #9, Beethoven
Graphic Listening Maps – Texture
These graphic listening maps are also among our favorites! They help students identify the melodic and harmonic lines. The concept of texture becomes visual as well as auditory. These visual representations make it easy for students to identify thick or thin textures.
Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven
Clair de Lune, Debussy
Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy, Tchaikovsky
Aquarium (Carnival of the Animals), Saint–Saëns
William Tell Overture, Rossinni
Symphony #5, Beethoven
Tocatta & Fugue in D Minor, Bach
Listening Maps – Form
Listening maps also make it easy for students to identify the form of a piece. When they see visual representations of sections of a piece that contrast or repeat, the form becomes less abstract and much easier to understand.
3 Little Birds, Bob Marley
The Elephant (Carnival of the Animals), Saint–Saëns
Theme from “The Pink Panther”, Henry Mancini
Listening Maps – Style
Pairing music with visual representations makes it easier to identify styles as well. Listening maps help students describe the character of the piece with descriptors such as smooth, connected, short, disconnected, etc.
It’s fun to compare and contrast two different listening maps of the same piece of music. This post includes two different listening maps of the Star Wars Theme.
Star Wars Theme, John Williams
Blue Danube, Strauss
Fade, Alan Walker
Ride of the Valkyries, Wagner
Conclusion
Classical music still has a place in the elementary music classroom. Add a variety of styles of music and types of listening maps to your elementary music lesson plans. This will appeal to the varied interests of your students and widen their repertoire and knowledge base.
Listening maps are an ideal way to introduce your students to music they wouldn’t hear otherwise.
Share this post to help other elementary music teachers find these quality listening maps.
Other Elementary Music Activities
- 12 Fun Body Percussion Play-Along Videos to Teach Music Rhythm Reading
- Free Elementary Music Distance Learning Activities
- Digital Music Activities for Elementary Students
📚 Featured Storybooks
Introduce your elementary music students to the instruments of the orchestra through storybooks.
Meet the Author
Terri Lloyd is an experienced music educator with over 25 years of teaching in elementary music classrooms. She holds a Master’s in Education, an Instructional Technology Certificate in Curriculum Design, and a Bachelor of Music. Her resources are designed to help music teachers develop students’ music literacy and performance skills while enjoying learning.
She presents music education workshops, develops curriculum, and writes for her blog. She is on the music staff at her church and leads a children’s program. She performs as a active community musician with a local Big Band, pit orchestras, and at various events.
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